Pre-match: Concacaf Nations League Quarterfinals @ Jamaica (Nov 14) & v Jamaica (Nov 18)

along those lines, personally i have suggested call guys as senior players when we get unprofessional responses to their age group attendance. i feel like a lot of the supposed courtesy GB sought was one way traffic. we might leave someone off to bed in or be told no as an age grouper. i never saw some reciprocal courtesy. guys would show up exactly when they are legally required to be released.

in which case, several of these high age grouper kids we have been getting grief on, are also marginal senior players. fine. he's in the senior camp and you cannot legally say no.

i personally believe that between our attitude on that, and GB's laissez faire "go try them and try us then tell me who you want to pick," we were getting abused. losing dual nationals and getting told no when that shouldn't happen. you make clear you won't be jerked around, the games stop.

 

belgium and france.

there isn't a player on this roster with goals against that level of team. even CP.

are you serious.

the basic confusion your ilk has is confusing a lack of caps with quality issues. he has 4 goals in 15 caps including 2 goals on massive teams. most teams would adore that type potential player, not pretend he sucks.

the funny thing is you then pretend like some guy with 20 caps and 0G 0A is awesome. when all you're really saying is he's here and the other guy isn't. which begs the question when you compare histories and stats from their caps.

if you play a cap and nothing happens, that is bad performance. if you are not called, that is not proof you suck. it's an omission, which says nothing either way.

the game is to pretend he is off form in club, right now, 4G 1A in 12 games in germany. playing mid. hardly suckage.

anyone with a brain knows the real issue is he's more like a 10 or SS or wing, and GB resisted reyna-types for most of his tenure, in favor of two way diesel types.

if you noticed my list, it was more like pure assist guys and then a couple 6 trialists. because i am sick of watching us be unable to complete a forward pass from interior midfield.

 

Two fluke goals... have you actually watched them?

 

oh, spare me dude. he practically called up green straight to the world cup. two friendlies and into the roster. you are pretending he took forever to waffle on it and let him mature. he put an 18 year old guy from bayern U19 into a world cup knockout game. for his 3rd cap ever.

and all due respect to "needs time" but every risk so far except kochen is towards some guy in their late 20s like steffen or zendejas. and kochen, for all the proclaimed "trust," hasn't seen the field one second.

you are trying to spin the facts opposite of what they mean by saying, "but it wasn't his first window." it was only the efffffing Window of All Windows. with a player that to the soccer world was an age grouper. but if you remember, had big stats for an age group kid.\

just like cole does. just like reyna did.

there is a point where the delay is silly and basically saying let the other coach take the risk first. i was advocating cole in the spring based on some U19 i saw. told he's not first team. now he is. now it's some new excuse.

always excuses.

 

kiss my tookus did i watch the world cup did i watch france what kind of a dumb question is that

you mean have i not seen every game this team has played for years

oh but i guess i missed some favorite scrub of your playing in some random league where he somehow disproved what his 10 caps showed for us, which was jack

 

Is that even English

 

to be clear, i would like to see paredes yow reyna adams fossey wright balogun

but you can't call hurt people

at which point, given a choice between calling proven scrubs and prospects, i say prospects who don't have a disappointing track record already. what i don't know over what i am sure i will regret. i do not see the point in calling in a bunch of 10-20 cap B team scrubs pretending they have somehow magically changed their games because they moved teams and their stats look better this season.

we keep falling for the same trick. we bench or ignore guys who can sign in germany, for supposed form. we then elevate them when they move to mexico or holland or some other high scoring league. good for them it looks good on paper, especially with our brain trust. but in reality a guy with 5G in germany might be doing better work to accomplish that, than someone with 10G in holland where defense is optional.

arena pointed out a few years ago this was what was happening with US soccer. analytics over scouting. numbers over what your eyes see. and so i watch trash.

 

is SJ even soccer

 

No one is calling for any players from the Earthquakes to be on the roster, YOU are the one calling for TWO players from Greuther Fürth, Julian Green and Maximillian Dietz, while whining about the current roster being a "B team lovefest"... by the way GF are currently 13/18 in the 2.Bunesliga table with 13 points from 12 games.

 

You are not able to follow your own logic. Why can’t Poch call in someone, anyone on the eve of the WC and put them straight in the squad? He absolutely can, but not today, because it’s a year and a half away.
Do you not understand the timing you’re crying about, and that your example of Klinsman kills your argument? Or do you totally understand and just want to argue.

 

The last US World Cup teams had backup fullbacks. Not taking backups to this leaves the team vulnerable to any injury issues at the position.

 

Or Jedi completely flubbing a clear and giving Jamaica a point blank shot.

 

I wasn't trying to address any of your points. That being said, you are absolutely right...I did miss your point.

 

Pochettino has said what his backup fullback plan is. People were listening or what?

I'm not even sure it is the backup plan.
I wouldn't be shocked if he starts Musah at right back, for instance.

We're not going to the World Cup.
Its two games against Jamaica.

 

Don't worry bout a ting...

 

I may worry about their rocky field causing a few problems for our players used to pristine conditions.

 

It's always easy and feels good to just say none of the players are good enough. I wish we had better in many positions as well. But, professional soccer is a small world and all these guys are scouted by coaches all around it. There are not a bunch of hidden gems somewhere that we can just throw out there that are going to magically perform better than guys who have been more successful in the sport for years. I actually like Julian Green as a player and there was a time not long ago when a guy like him would get real minutes for the US. But if he was clearly better than who we have he wouldn't be playing in the second division in Germany and one scuffed goal 10 years ago doesn't change that. It's fantasyland to think we can just get rid of ever American who has been successful and somehow a bunch of bad news bears are gonna rise up once they pull on the magic USA jersey and turn into world beaters. Strictly fantasy stuff. I'm fine with the idea there are guys on the margins that could get a shot. We all have that small handful that we all think should.be more involved and there are many different ways to play the game that would result in minor personnel changes. But, just throw 'em all out and call in a bunch of guys who haven't amounted to squat throughout their careers is an approach no coach worth getting paid to do the job is going to be interested in taking.

 

Are you saying we don't have any Hansen Brothers equivalents?

 

Not even a worry anymore. Just an assumption. I'm also waiting for, if we don't win, a quote about underestimating them.

 

I find that what people who propose the scattershot approach actually mean is that "I don't like player A and I do like player B, you're an idiot for calling A over B." But they often want to disguise it behind some broader philosophy or process. Why, I don't know.

He thinks some guys can be found out in 30 minutes of play with the US but also wants to call in guys who played poorly in more than 30 minutes of play. But HIS guy is okay.

Just say you like Julian Green or ... checks notes ... Maximilian Dietz? Whatever. I'm not going to agree but pretending it's some philosophy of trying anyone out is silly.

This is also right up there with the very similar "stop forcing a system and stop being so inflexible" and then the person is insistent on a single, different way to play. In this case, in a pool with Jedi Robinson and Sergiño Dest, we should never play fullbacks that get forward. Because that makes a lot of sense.

 

Why do people keep saying we don’t have backup FBs? Do you think this was an oversight or something? Wouldn’t the more charitable (and reasonable) assumption be that Poch and the coaching staff believe they do have back ups?

 

He literally named Ream at LB and Musah and Weah (I think) at RB (and maybe even LB). They are the backups. Or maybe even the starters.

So, yeah, I don't really know what people are talking about. Complain that you don't want Ream at LB (though we know it'd be a flipped Scally situation most likely) or that you don't think Musah can defend at RB.

But we've got them. There's a plan.

 

He named Ream and Musah as options (not Weah).

But anyway, speaking as someone who initially noted we did not bring backup fullbacks, I did not literally mean that Poch would have no Plan B if Scally or Jedi went down injured or that there's nobody else on the roster capable of playing as a fullback in a pinch. (Yes, as is often the case these days across most positions on the field, we have a number of players who have filled in at fullback in rare, and sometimes emergency, situations at the club level, and I have no doubt that one of those players would be willing to step in again if the need arises.)

The more charitable (and reasonable) read of anyone pointing that out is that we don't have anyone outside of our two starters on this roster who have ever played regularly at the club or national team level as a traditional fullback. That's basically the first time I can ever recall seeing a roster like that, so it doesn't surprise me that people think that's noteworthy.

 

to underline what i think of current personnel processes. you can look this up. brendan aaronson has more caps than tim weah. we favor schmucks with comfortable club situations and analytically digestible playing time over star prospects choosing difficult club environments who look obviously better to the eye test but have less PT.

and so, for example, cowell/zendejas over campbell.

now you can do some stats blabbing and ignore who is simply the better soccer player.

which, btw, is my point.

 

he said ream and that tells me he is being talked to by analytics folks telling him who has ever played what

and not how well they played it. or if they are actually suited to it by skillset.

as i just said, analytics over scouting. scouting would be you go back and actually watch switzerland or canada torch the man last time we tried him out on the wing. which is why he got dropped before we rebooted him as a center player.